Positive Moods and Emotions 15-Enthusiam

Question-Week ending Sunday 05/09/04:

What person in your life has encouraged you the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about your causes or interests? Please read our Pre-Poll Commentary before taking this poll.

Pre-Poll Commentary:

Our fifteenth keyword in our poll series on moods and emotions is ENTHUSIASM. For the purpose of this poll we will describe the meaning of ENTHUSIASM as "great excitement for or interest in a subject or cause."

However, keep in mind that this emotion is often short lived. We can become very enthusiastic about a subject or cause one moment - and lose that enthusiasm the next moment. Most enthusiasm erupts like a fire from within us, by the hope or promise of something great that may happen to us or those we care about. Then minutes later, we have that fire doused by someone else's comments or statements, contradicting our emotion.

Too often, other people destroy our enthusiasm. This is not always a bad thing since we may sometimes be naive of the dangers or disappointments that may follow blind enthusiasm. However, if you perform due diligence on an enthusiastic cause, and have extracted enough reasons and benefits to pursue your cause - you shouldn't let the doomsayers move in to douse your fire.

Enthusiasm can be a wonderful and powerful emotion. It drives people to perform at their BEST and allows them to achieve the worthiest of causes. It should be used in a positive way to give you the energy to do your research; learn all your can about your cause or objective; discover the obstacles and the resources needed to overcome those obstacles; put a detailed plan together with deadlines to accomplish your objectives - and make your cause or goal a reality.

But keep in mind that enthusiasm wanes quickly. To keep it alive, the process described above will help to keep the embers burning. There are few substitutes to an organized plan, to stay committed and fight off the doomsayers. High quality ideas coupled with a well thought through plan, is a recipe for results and achievement.

Let us know in this week's poll, what person in your life encouraged you the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about your causes or interests? This poll will end on Sunday 05/09/04, when the results will be displayed.

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Results:

31% of voters chose "A Parent" as the person in their life who had encouraged them the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about their causes or interests.

24% of voters chose "A Coach" as the person in their life who had encouraged them the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about their causes or interests.

17% of voters chose "A Grandparent" as the person in their life who had encouraged them the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about their causes or interests.

14% of voters chose "A Spouse" as the person in their life who had encouraged them the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about their causes or interests.

12% of voters chose "A Teacher" as the person in their life who had encouraged them the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about their causes or interests.

02% of voters chose "A Friend" as the person in their life who had encouraged them the "MOST," to stay enthusiastic about their causes or interests.

Post-Poll Commentary:

Our poll results this week were led by "A Parent" as being the most encouraging individual in our voter's lives. If you are a parent, I'm sure you would like to believe that you encourage your children to pursue their causes and interests. However, as parents, we don't often feel that our kids believe this. Too often we try to protect our children from making what we believe are "bad choices," by discouraging them. Our parental decision to protect - can appear as an instant drain on our child's enthusiasm.

However, I was happy to see that parents took the number one spot. I was a little disappointed that "A Coach" came in second, 10% points ahead of "A Spouse." We usually have comparatively short relationships with a coach verses a spouse. However, a caring coach can be very supportive during the brief time they know us and can lend help us build enthusiasm toward the activity and life experiences they encounter with us.

I would have hoped that "A Spouse" would be more supportive and enthusiastic than the 12% showing, but it was much better than the mere 2% received by "A Friend."

The key to this poll is to understand the great power the emotion of enthusiasm can play, en-route to achieving what we want from "the game of life." Seek and use this emotional power wisely!